SOCHI, Russia — Luis Suarez believes any rivalry he may have with Cristiano Ronaldo is limited just to their club teams playing the past four years against each other in La Liga. In other words, it won’t be Suarez vs. Ronaldo when Uruguay and Portugal meet in the World Cup round of 16 on Saturday […]
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SEOUL, South Korea — South Koreans on Thursday spoke of pride and heartbreak after watching their national soccer team knock off defending champions Germany in the biggest upset of this year’s World Cup, but one that still failed to qualify them for the next round. The dense apartment complexes that shape capital Seoul shook with […]
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With one match left for each team in group play at the World Cup, just two of the eight groups have been decided, and even those could come down to tiebreakers to determine who gets the stronger seed in the knockout stage. If two or more teams wind up tied on points, here’s how FIFA decides who […]
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PREMIER Soccer League [PSL] football is set for some interesting times. First, it was the platinum revolution that came with FC Platinum and Ngezi Platinum — the two teams currently […]
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SOCHI, Russia — The Brazilian Football Confederation is questioning FIFA about the procedures used for video review during Brazil’s match against Switzerland at the World Cup.
The confederation says it is asking FIFA to clarify if the system was used during two key second-half decisions that went against the five-time world champion in the 1-1 opening draw on Sunday.
The first was a push on defender Miranda that aided Switzerland’s equalizer, and the second was a no-call that Brazil felt should have produced a penalty on a play involving forward Gabriel Jesus.
The confederation says on Monday "these two actions constitute … clear errors by the referee, which thus should form part of the reviewable decisions that are analyzed through VAR."
The confederation says it wants to know whether the plays were reviewed in any way, saying "transparency is of essence."
It also requests "video and audio recordings" that might have been used by the match officials during those plays.
Manhattan: The Daily News editorial on the NYPD’s gang policing tactics parrots the Department’s talking points without making any effort to examine their validity (“Ganging up on police,” June 15). The statistics the Editorial Board cites directly conflict with data...
KALININGRAD, Russia — Even in a more defensive role, Luka Modric can still lead the attack. The Croatia midfielder scored one goal and set up the other in his team’s 2-0 victory over Nigeria on Saturday at the World Cup. Modric sent in a corner that was headed by two teammates and then deflected into […]
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TORONTO – What a crazy game.
Toronto FC came from behind on two occasions to earn a 4-4 draw against D.C. United on Wednesday night before 23,011 spectators in one of the wildest games ever played at BMO Field.
Down 3-0 after an absolutely dreadful opening half, TFC fought back to score three consecutive goals in the second half, with the equalizer coming from Nick Hagglund in the 86th minute. D.C. retook the lead just four minutes later, only for Hagglund to bail out the Reds a second time by scoring another equalizer in injury time.
Moral victories are fine, but TFC could use the genuine kind right about now, as they fell to 4-7-3 on the season and dropped one spot in the standings, into second-last place in the Eastern Conference.
As great as this comeback was it doesn’t disguise the fact that the Reds couldn’t beat the last-place team in the East, and the second-worst side in MLS. Furthermore, Toronto squandered a golden opportunity to close the gap to two points on Orlando City, who hold down the sixth and final playoff spot in the East. Toronto did make up ground on Orlando, who lost to Montreal on Wednesday night, but all things considered, this felt like a loss, rather than a draw.
Toronto coach Greg Vanney offered a different view.
“A wild game, but given the way it started, we can’t be too picky about [only] taking a point from this one,” Vanney told reporters after the game.
Returning left fullback Justin Morrow saw both sides of it, acknowledging that D.C. is a team Toronto should beat, but also feeling the Reds showed a lot of character in coming back after such a disastrous start.
“You have to take both the negatives and the positives in this one. They’re both learning points, because we can’t go down like that in the first half,” Morrow said.
Captain Michael Bradley laid the truth bare, though, admitting, “These are games that we should win.”
He later added: “We need to win games, right? We all know that. … We take this [result] for what it is, and we have to recharge mentally and physically, and come back ready to look at ourselves in a real honest way, and make sure that as we move [forward] in the second half of the season that we rediscover a little bit of life and energy and enthusiasm.”
Defender Eriq Zavaleta was in TFC’s starting 11 on Wednesday night, making his first appearance since May 18 after being sidelined with a quad issue. Bothered by a problem calf, Morrow entered the game as second-half substitute for his first MLS appearance since the first day of the season. Notable absences for the Reds were defenders Drew Moor and Chris Mavinga, midfielder Marky Delgado and forward Jozy Altidore.
Toronto started strong out of the gate, with Victor Vazquez and Nico Hasler carving out early scoring chances. But as the game wore on, the hosts looked slow and laboured, and were routinely burned by D.C.’s quick counterattack.
D.C. opened the scoring against the run of play, putting together a pretty, multi-pass sequence that ended with Yamil Asad beating goalkeeper Alex Bono from close range in the middle of the box off a feed from Luciano Acosta.
The visitors doubled their advantage minutes later when Zoltán Stieber was allowed to gallop down the left flank before floating a perfect cross into the box where Paul Arriola connected on a gorgeous, diving header that sailed past Bono. D.C. added a third just before halftime, with Darren Mattocks slotting his shot past Bono after Zavaleta was caught in possession inside his penalty area.
Vanney bemoaned his team’s inability to play out from the back and stretch D.C. on the attack in the first half. He also felt his team was too slow to clear balls, played too many back passes and made some poor choices.
TFC was loudly booed off the pitch as they made their way down the player tunnel for the break. It was more than justified – fans at BMO Field witnessed one of the worst 45-minute periods from the Reds in recent memory.
“It was tough,” Morrow said of the boos.
Maybe the players got the message from the fans. TFC looked like a completely different team after the restart, playing with pace and urgency, forcing the issue in the final third of the pitch, and putting D.C. under sustained pressure.
It also helped matters that Vanney changed the team’s shape, and asked Gregory van der Wiel and Auro Jr. to start building the attack, rather than relying on Hagglund and Zavaleta to make the first pass out from the back. The introduction of Morrow also bolstered the team’s fortunes going forward.
“It was an aggressive, relentless second half,” Vanney said.
Toronto pulled a goal back when Vazquez released Ryan Telfer down the left, and the youngster centred a pass for fellow Canadian Jonathan Osorio, who hammered a powerful shot home from the middle of the box. It was Osorio’s team-leading fifth goal of the campaign.
Vazquez made it a one-goal game shortly after, scoring on a rebound when he hit a sweet one-timer off a Sebastian Giovinco attempt that came off the post.
The Reds completed the comeback late in regulation when Hagglund connected on a header off a cross supplied by Morrow.
Asad scored into an empty net in the 90th minute after a defensive breakdown, giving D.C. a 4-3 lead and stunning the BMO Field crowd into silence. But the game took yet another turn when Hagglund tied things up for Toronto in injury time off a setup from Osorio.
“Five minutes left in the game, and Greg says abandon centre back and head forward. I just got in the box and waited for some great balls,” Hagglund said of his pair of late goals.
NOTES: D.C. leads the all-time series against Toronto, with 13 wins and six draws in 29 meetings… TFC returns to action on June 24 against New York City at Yankee Stadium.
EXPLOSIVE Zimbabwe batsman Cephas Zhuwao needed just one platform — the ICC World Cup Qualifier the country hosted in February and March — to charm West Indies superstar Chris Gayle, […]
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BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Without Lionel Messi, would Argentina even be going to the World Cup? The team’s destiny is more closely tied to the Barcelona forward than ever before. There are plenty of doubts for coach Jorge Sampaoli ahead of the tournament in Russia. Defender Javier Mascherano is reaching the end of his career, […]
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LONDON — A February winter break will be introduced in the English Premier League from the 2019-20 season, the Football Association announced on Friday. The breaks will be staggered to ensure that Premier League action still takes place on every weekend during the period, with five games on each weekend, allowing two weeks’ rest for […]
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LAVAL, Que. – Pierre-Rudolph Mayard’s acrobatic goal in injury time lifted AS Blainville to a 2-1 win over the Oakville Blue Devils on Wednesday in the first leg of the qualifying round of the expanded Canadian Championship.
Blainville had a corner kick in the 92nd minute that an AS forward volleyed toward the net but Oakville goalkeeper Matthew George blocked.
The rebound was kicked at again, bouncing off the crossbar before Mayard launched himself into the air, using a bicycle kick to drive the ball into the net from in close.
Mitchell Syla had given Blainville an early lead, but Anthony Novak tied it up for Oakville before the half.
Oakville, the League 1 Ontario champion, and the Quebec club champion AS Blainville are playing in a new two-legged qualifying round.
The Oakville home leg will be on June 13 at the Ontario Soccer Centre in Vaughan.
The winner faces the USL’s Ottawa Fury FC in the second qualifying round, with defending Canadian and MLS champion Toronto FC awaiting the victor. The Montreal Impact play the Vancouver Whitecaps in the other semifinal.
The Canadian champion gets to hoist the Voyageurs Cup and earns a berth in the CONCACAF Champions League.
Blainville, which clinched the 2017 Quebec title with three matches remaining, currently sits atop the PLSQ standings with a 4-0-2 record. Mayard leads the league with six goals.
The debut of the Canadian Premier League in 2019 will further expand the Canadian Championship field.
It sounds like a punchline: how does a team of prisoners win the World Cup? On penalties! That’s how Peru did it, getting out of jail to beat Russia in a tense final at the giant Lima Stadium last week. It wasn’t the real thing — that begins in Russia later this month — but […]
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VANCOUVER — The Vancouver Whitecaps have scored an average of 2.2 goals over their last four games, enough to win most Major League Soccer matches.
Problem is, over the same span the Whitecaps have also allowed an average 2.2 goals, resulting in Vancouver settling for four consecutive draws.
Early in the season Vancouver struggled to score goals. Now the Whitecaps are finding the back of the net but are being penalized by giving up goals due to some sloppy defensive work.
It’s a situation the Whitecaps hope to change Friday night when they play the Colorado Rapids on the road.
"Usually a team that scores two or three goals gets the win," midfielder Felipe said after training this week. "From our own mistakes we are giving away points, because of giveaways and some mistakes in the back."
The Whitecaps have won once in their last nine games (1-4-4) and head into the weekend below the playoff line sitting seventh in the Western Conference with 17 points.
Recent results have been a mixed bag for Vancouver. The Whitecaps have come from behind four times for the tie, twice scoring late in injury time.
Head coach Carl Robinson likes the character his side has shown but has sprouted grey hairs over some of his team’s defensive lapses.
"It shows we are not far away," Robinson said. "We’ve had lots of good days recently, but we haven’t picked up as many points as we would have liked because we’ve made individual errors.
"What we need to do is cut out the nonsense of the individual mistakes and the silly goals, and then try and take our chances. We are sitting probably where we deserve to be based on the chances we’ve missed as well as the bad goals we have given up."
Felipe said going a goal down changes the game plan.
"We have to be more calm in certain areas and absorb the pressure other teams are giving us," he said. "Most of the games this year we have been down and then you have to chase the game. You have to go away form your game plan a little bit."
Vancouver also needs to be better around the opposition net. During May, the Whitecaps led MLS with 75 scoring chances, according to Opta, the group that keeps league statistics. They also led the league in the category of big chances missed (12).
Robinson is confident the goals will come.
"I believe if we continue to go the way we are going, keep working, we will score five or six goals against someone," he said. "Just be patient."
Colorado started the season 2-1-2 but have then spiralled down the table with six consecutive defeats. Four of those losses have been by one goal.
"Our spirits are high," head coach Anthony Hudson told the Rapids website. "The players believe. We know the gap we have to make up.
"We’ve had a real tough period. We know they (Vancouver) are a real good team but a team we feel we can do well against."
——
VANCOUVER WHITECAPS (4-5-5) AT COLORADO RAPIDS (2-7-2)
Friday, Dick’s Sporting Goods Park
GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN: The Whitecaps will play their first game without centre back and team captain Kendall Waston, who has joined Costa Rica’s World Cup team.
HENRY’S RETURN: Canadian centre back Doneil Henry is back with the Whitecaps have being loaned to Ottawa Fury FC of the USL. He will be in the mix to replace Waston.
HE’S NOT BACK: Several Whitecaps are on the limp. Goalkeeper Stefan Marinovic (sprained knee) will miss his fifth game. Defender Marcel de Jong (hamstring) is listed as day-to-day. Striker Kei Kamara (undisclosed) is "touch and go."
ROCKY ROAD: The Whitecaps are 2-4-1 on the road this year.
COLORADO LOW: The Rapids have lost six straight games and are tied for last in the MLS Western Conference with Seattle with eight points. Colorado is 2-3-1 at home.
THE BUG REWARDED: Vancouver midfielder Cristian Techera, nicknamed The Bug, was named the MLS Player of the Week for scoring three goals in last Saturday 3-3 draw with New England.
